7/18/2009

What an incredible waste of the Tories time

This afternoon I was building my son's new bed up and whilst taking a breather, observed a car pull up right at the end of my road. Out of the car came a bald man, wearing glasses, who I would guess was about retirement age. He got out of the passengers side, pointed to my house, then strolled up with one leaflet, pushed it through my door, returned to the car where the driver was waiting (engine running) and then drove off.

I looked downstairs to find one Tory leaflet (a dreadfully wordy partially handwritten, partially printed style leaflet) was sitting on my doorstep.

Now I have offered to print leaflets to this blog if they are sent in digital form. But instead of doing this much more environmentally friendly thing, it appears that the Tories are leafleting my house only, even using up the time of two people and driving here in order to make me believe that more leaflets are going out than there really are.

How does this fit with the Tories "eco" credentials ? Does it tell us that the Tories are not getting all their leaflets out as easily as they hoped ?

12 comments:

dazmando said...

Wow, Total waste of time, what are they on. Why do they care about you getting a leaflet anyway I mean its the votes that count are Norfolk Blogger readers really going to change there vote if you get a leaflet... NO!

Madness total Madness

Mark Thompson said...

If I have understood you correctly Nich then they have specifically targetted you because you are a well known blogger in the hope that you will publicise their leaflets a bit more!?

Very ill-advised I would say (and has backfired) and as you say, a waste of time and energy in all senses of the word.

Anonymous said...

If they only printed one copy and posted it to you in hope that you will scan it for them, they spared a lot of paper and other resources. Do they believe, though, that your blog is so widely readen in Norwich, that publishing a leaflet in it compensates leafleting neighborhoods? On the other hand, maybe they are right, maybe people are already sick and tired to the many leaflets they get.

I always used to vote with my feet, but it took way too long to make a neat cross said...

Gosh! Are the Tories standing in this by-election? I never realised. I'm going to vote for them now. Thanks.

Null said...

Now, that's what I call being a political heavyweight, Nich. But, how do they know where you live?

Nich Starling said...

Electoral roll

Brian E. said...

I just wonder how many floating voters there are in any constituency when an election is called. I've been a floating voter in my time, but I've always decided how to vote sometime before the election, and to me, leaflets are a waste of time.
In my wife's case, all they have ever done is to put her off a candidate - "I don't like the look of him" (don't put in a photo!) or "I didn't know he was a (insert occupation), I'm not voting for one of them". And as we usually manage to negate each other's vote ......!

Nich Starling said...

I think there are a large number of floating voters here because lots of people were happy Ian Gibson voters so they suddenly became floating voters.

Costigan Quist said...

Oddly I've heard of other areas where the Tories think it's tremendously amusing to stuff leaflets through the door of the candidate, councillor or MP and no-one else in the area.

Quite what they think they're achieving by it is anyone's guess.

Anonymous said...

I agree. Locally people were Gibson voters, not Labour. The sacking of Gibson pulled the rug from beneath these people. This is why Labour are in for a hammering.

Null said...

"I think there are a large number of floating voters here because lots of people were happy Ian Gibson voters so they suddenly became floating voters."

Nich, I think the way the Ian Gibson was treated has ensured that Labour will lose. The Labour party have underestimated his popularity locally.

Dan said...

Anyone who doubts the "Gibson effect" should look at the swing Labour got in Norwich North in 1992 - the first time Gibson was candidate. Back in 1987 Labour nearly finished third

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